Miami Lady
by ruffledparasol
Summary: Officer Emma Swan has been tracking down Miami's most notorious criminal, Gold, her whole career. When she finally get's a good tip off, and is close to nailing the bastard, she finds herself being paired with a new, very hot and very distracting partner, Detective Regina Mills. All is going to plan until she realizes that things are not always what they seem. SwanQueen Cops AU
1. A Tip and A Partner

**Hello lovely friends &amp; readers! Welcome to my Cops/Swan Queen AU! I've loved the idea of Emma and Regina as cops for a while now and this story has been molding and forming on my laptop for about 3 months. Finally, I can say, I'm happy with it and decided to post it! I do hope you enjoy! This is very much an AU. I don't watch cop shows often and really have no idea when it comes to the police force, so any errors in name/rank there please forgive - blame Biffy! And please note, I don't own ONCE, I only play with their characters! Enjoy! Oh and if you find the references to various movie/T.V. show here - lemme know! I might have a surprise for you! (; there are 2 in this chap!**

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**A Tip and A Partner**

The Miami skyline was splashed pink by the setting sun. The breeze coming in from South Beach had a salty sweet taste, catching the blondes hair, it flitted in wisps around her face caressing her rosy cheeks and leaving kisses along her glistening skin. The sound of soft music wafted on the breeze from some local party. She sighed, reclining even further into her lounge chair. Nothing could ruin the day...

"I'm a sailor peg!  
And I've lost my leg!  
Climbing up the top sails  
I lost my leg!"

Or that would be if this were a TV show and not real life.

Officer Emma Swan said a silent prayer for whatever sorry son of a bitch decided to call her on her day off. The sound of screaming Irishmen mixed with heavy metal that was her ringtone stirred up the remains of her hangover now throbbing in her skull. Ungraciously she retrieved her screaming cellphone, growling roughly into the receiver.

"This is Swan, and this had better be good, because if it isn't Gold's ruddy head on a platter then you've just interrupted me on day off and you're going to have my foot up your ass so quick come Monday morning you wont - "

"Emma, it's me." Emma blinked as she instantly recognized the gruff voice she hadn't heard in years crackling through the speakers, "And trust me, it's good."

xxx

"What the hell is so important that you call me on a Sunday Booth?" Officer Swan belted as she swung open the rusty bar door of the Radio. It was their old spot and there by the brightly colored tiki bar, stood the shadow of the man who used to be her former partner. He was tall, dressed in khaki shorts, a faded base ball cap rooting for their old hometown team, the Red Soxs, and the ugliest Hawaiian shirt she had ever seen.

"The hell you wearing?"

August Booth winked at the tan girl behind the bar, before setting his drink down and turning to his now fuming ex-partner, "It's good to see you too, Savior."

Officer Swan winced at the use of her unfortunate nickname. It had taken a few years for the use of her alleged moniker to die down around the office, and ever since the accident no one had dared utter it in her vicinity again.

"Don't Savior me Booth."

"Ah, but aren't you an angelic vision, all dressed in white?" He said through sips of his overly fruity looking drink, "You never wear white, Swan? What's the occasion?"

"Day off. And if you don't have anything, I'd like to get back to enjoying it."

Without a word Booth set his drink down on the tropical coaster, reaching behind him into a sack, dropping a large manila packet down on the bar.

With a smug look he pushed it towards her, "Don't say I never gave you anything."

Emma eyed the overflowing packet before letting out a irritated huff. It had been years since she and Booth had last worked together and yet, in mere seconds, he proved that no one knew her better.

Giving in to her curiosity she plopped down a few stools away, grabbing file after file out of the protruding packet.

Booth smirked as his former partner ripped through the packet.

"Wow, easy tiger."

Flipping over the largest file Emma drew in breath, running her fingers over the name scribbled across it in messy handwriting. _Gold_.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"Mmm-" Booth hummed, shaking his head while finishing off his drink, "It's better."

"Better?"

"Like that brunette from the Key Largo case - Ruby," he said, sucking the sugar off of the rim of his glass, "way better.

A wave of excitement rushed through the blonde officers toned body. She had been following the Gold case for years. Back when Booth and her were newbies of the force in Boston, they had heard stories about the notorious Gold. Together, they had naively fantasized what it would be like to be the ones to catch him. To bring him in, to finally put an end to his reign, to be victorious. There were many afternoons, spent on stakeouts together, talking about how they would go down in history as the best cops ever. Saving people, eating doughnuts and putting away one of the biggest villains of their day. But that was before the accident. Those were easier times.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Emma opened the file. Scattered among black and white shots of bungalows somewhere in SoBe, there was a picture of a woman. She was short, fresh faced, with wide eyes and a sweet smile.

"Uh - Unless Gold has gone and had a sex change, this isn't him August."

"No, it's not."

Emma nearly spit. Biting back a growl of frustration as she felt the dull shot of a migraine beginning behind her eyes she spoke, "What do you mean-"

"It's his girlfriend."

"What?"

"His girlfriend whose pissed at him and able to testify."

"What?"

"Yeah," Booth said, signaling over the bar girl for another drink, "Apparently she didn't like it when she found out he procured her diamond ring as a form of blood money."

Emma starred at the man in disbelief, quickly going over what was said in her head, "August where did you get this?"

"Never you mind about that." He said, swiveling back to see her. "She's your key to nailing Gold. Names Belle French. Looks like a goody two shoes if you ask me, but don't let that fool you. She's wicked fast."

Officer Swan stared at her former partner. Before she could question Booth on how he got his hands on this information while being outside of the force, or on his reasons for handing it over to her he pushed a second drink in front of her.

"Drink up kid. You're about to solve the case of our lifetime!"

Stunned, Emma looked down at the drink. Dr Pepper, her old favorite.

xxx

Come Monday the central offices of the Criminal Investigation unit of the Miami Police Department was in a flurry. Cops swarming in and out like bees. Every few minutes a new face would come through, entering and exiting the doors of the office, trying to get a glimpse at something hidden behind the door of the majors office.

Officer Swan had barely noticed the commotion. She was already buried in paperwork from her last case of the robbery of the famous locals diner, Grannys, owned by South Beach local Eugenia Lucas.

"Swan!" Came the voice of her unit boss, Major Nolan. "My office."

Emma stood immediately, not caring that all eyes were on her as she made her way to his office. She was more concerned with the massive overload of paperwork that would be left unattended.

"You called Sir?" She entered the room.

"Emma," Major Nolan spoke, acknowledging the officer with a familiar tone. The moment Emma had transferred to the Criminal Investigations unit of the Miami PD, Major Nolan had taken her under his wing. Emma wouldn't admit it to anyone, but in the time she had been there, Major Nolan had become the closets thing to a father figure she had ever had in her life. "Come in and shut the door behind you."

Officer Swan did as she was told.

The moment the door clicked, signaling that it was locked she heard a shuffling inside the room.

Major Nolan sat behind his large desk, filled with his many badges and plaques and certificates of honor. He was a fine Major and had become a good friend of Emma's in her short time on their force. She would say that by now she could read the man pretty well, and judging by the way he was currently fidgeting, running his hands through his well kept dirty blonde hair, he was nervous. He kept readjusting himself, moving in his seat, until his knee bumped the desk causing a stack of papers to scatter on the floor.

Officer Swan immediately knelt to help pick them up, and that was when she saw her.

Legs. All she could make out was legs. They were long and sexily curved, covered in fishnets that only seemed to go thigh high, before they were cut off under the hem of a grey skirt with a slit up the side revealing an unholy amount of tan flesh. They seemed to touch the sky.

She looked up, following the curved hip until she met sinfully red lips, perfectly coiffed brunette hair and two eyes staring back at her.

"Office Swan, this is-"

"Regina Mills."

xxx

Major Nolan was known throughout the precinct as a well respected man. He was highly revered, idolized even. His work was through and his moral compass sound. It was not often that he was bested when it came to the inner workings his job or his people. But in this case he felt completely out of the loop.

He surveyed the two women before him with his highly observational eye, critiquing their every move and came up with nothing so he spoke.

"Okay, am I missing something? Do you two know each other? Swan?"

"I'm afraid I'm just as confused as you are Major," the dark brunette said. She turned to face the blonde, "I'm sorry, but have we met before?"

The woman's voice was deep and the normally cool Officer Swan had to swallow not once, but twice, in order to get her throat in working order again.

"N-no." She responded, stuttering slightly, eyeing the woman who appeared completely unaffected. She cleared her throat and tried to pretend that she hadn't seen the eyebrow raise of her Major across from her out of the corner of her eye. "We haven't personally, but I am very familiar with you work."

"Oh?" The brunette responded, raising a perfectly arched brow.

"Yeah. The closing of Ingrid the Ice Killer case. Nice thought to freeze her out of her next victims house, by literally freezing her hand to the door. Slightly poetic, isn't it, Officer?"

"It's Detective."

"Really?" Swan said before she could stop herself.

The woman shifted, exposing more of her delicious looking tanned skin, "For someone that claims to know so much about me, you seem to actually know very little."

Officer Swan wanted nothing more than to wipe the sadistic smirk that had formed on the brunettes face clean off of the face of the earth with a bullet, but decided against it. If there was something she knew she couldn't take back it was words out of her mouth and bullets from her gun. She smiled internally at her own movie reference but then squashed it down as she turned back to the conversation happening in front of her, without her.

"So Major?" The woman spoke again. "Are we just going to stand here, gawking or?"

"Er- Right." Major Nolan began. Officer Swan looked at him in concern. She had never seen the Major stutter. But then again, not many got the chance to come in contact with the famed Regina Mills and live to tell the tale.

She was the best of the best. At age 15 she had been solving cases along side with her father, the illustrious Detective Henry Mills. When she was spotted behind the police tape on the crime scene of the infamous Red Queen case, she had been promptly questioned until the interviewer realized that he had cornered the daughter of the most prominent name on the police force. He was immediately sacked but the interview had still been published on the front pages the next day. Every paper read their own version but the most _The_ _Mirror_ had stated in big, bold print, 'Fifteen Year Old Prodigy Solves Red Queen Case in a Matter of Seconds.'

Ever since then, the cop world had known the name of Regina Mills. She graduated top of her class, and early at that. She had hunted down and locked up more criminals in her first newbie years on the force, then most seasoned cops in the entirety of their long hauled careers.

And she was a kill shot with a bow and arrow.

It was a little known fact that the notorious Regina Mills could shoot a bird down, blind folded, with one hand behind her back, in the middle of a forest better with an old fashion bow rather then a pistol.

But Officer Emma Swan knew. She probably knew more about that woman then even the most extreme fan sitting in university, studying her methods and probably wetting themselves if they ever had the chance to meet her.

And as her brain spun, a small, nagging thought that had been swarming around in the background fought its way to the front.

"Why are you here exactly?" She asked out of the blue.

Just then Officer Swan realized she must have been in her own world of thoughts for longer then she knew because of the simple fact that both parties seemed to have paused, and turned around to face the woman who had interrupted them.

Swan explained, "I'm assuming they pulled you in to help close the Gold case. But I'm wondering why? You're to smart for this."

The brunettes eyebrow raised again, this time pulling up the corner of her red painted lips into a smirk.

"This is easily the biggest case of the decade," Regina responded coolly.

"Yeah," Officer Swan spoke, "but it's not really your style."

"Well," said the woman, narrowing her black rimmed eyes in on the blonde, "Looks like the Me expert has spoken again. Tell me, Officer Swan, what exactly is my style?"

Officer Swan answered without hesitation.

"Dark, twisted, anything that has psychopath written all over it."

Major Nolan's eyebrows shot so far up, Emma would be shocked if they ever came back down. But the brunette only smirked, seemingly amused with the Officer's diagnosis.

"Well," She said after a long, painfully silent moment had passed, "people may just surprise you."

"I doubt it." Officer Swan responded.

Emma had the strange feeling that she was being analyzed fully by the other woman as she stared at her. Before the brunette turned back however, she did a once over of the Officer with her eyes and from the way they darkened and her tongue came out to wet her lips when she was done, Emma knew that she had just been undressed mentally.

"Major?" The brunette questioned.

"Yep," the man said, shaking his head as if to clear his current train of thought, "Swan, this is Detective Regina Mills, but it looks like you already know that. I'm assigning her to the Gold case in the hopes to catch this guy once and for all. We just got a tip off that he's going to be down in South Beach tonight for the opening of his girlfriends new collection at Art Basel. Best guess is it's a cover for him to receive his drug shipments undetected using the art boxes as a cover. You two are going to go in undercover together and catch him. Got it?"

"Understood," said the brunette. And with that she turned, heading straight for the door, hips swaying, hair flowing and her stilettos clicking nosily on the marbled floors.

Officer Swan however was rooted to the spot.

"Swan? Is everything ok?" Came the voice of Major Nolan. When the silence hadn't broken he reached out a hand to tap the stunned woman, but she snapped out of it and spoke.

"Fine."

"You sure?" He asked.

"Affirmative." Swan said. She turned on her heel after giving David a nod to signal he okay state and headed for the door. When she closed it behind her however she took a moment to breathe.

She was going undercover tonight to catch Gold. The biggest case of her and probably every body in the office's careers. And she was going with none other than Regina Mills.

She almost cried.

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_**Hope you enjoyed the first chap! Leave your reviews in the comments &amp; if you spotted the references let me know! x**_


	2. The Lady in Red

**_I don't think I have ever witnessed a better time then this to use the "It's been 84 years" gif..._**

**Oh my goodness ya'll! I'm so sorry! Talk about patience! You guys have been the best! Sorry it took so long to post the second chapter of this fic! - I've been a bit preoccupied... *cough cough* **_Warm Hearts_** &amp; **_Over the Ocean_**...**

**For those of you that are new to this story WELCOME - to those that had already read this &amp; were patiently waiting for an update HELLO (don't shoot me!) - to those of you that have read my other works, such as my OutlawQueen fics, and have ventured over here I APPLAUDE YOU! *if you didn't know, I basically ship anything that involves Regina*... SwanQueen was my original ship &amp; I love it very very much. OutlawQueen has become my new love (well after last nights episode DragonQueen can be added in among the likes) but I read, write and ship them all. So if you have an issue with this, please, feel free to leave. Like what you like, ship what you ship, read what you want to read. HOWEVER if you've never read a SQ fic I implore you to read this \- if not for the beautifulness of these two characters, then at least for this stories plot line(; **

**_The gif I was referencing above comes from Titanic - since I watched it for the first time in my life last night thanks to _**InquisitiveDreamer** _I now know that (;- thank very much!) Speaking of ID, a big thanks goes to her for encouraging me, reading over this &amp; beta'ing it on such short notice! Much love to you doll! MWAH_**

**So ... without further ado, 5 billion years later, I present you, Chapter 2_ of _**Miami Lady

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**_The Lady in Red_**

The breeze from South Beach picked up and carried with it, the scents of overly tropical perfume, Mai Tais and tanning oil as it past steadily by.

Officer Emma Swan breathed the erotic mix of scents in deeply through her nose, closing her eyes, feeling her lips curve up as she did so. It had been a while since she had been there, out in the city, dressed in civilian clothing. Although she knew that she was still _technically_ on the job, she felt like if she were to walk into a club right now she would be highly accepted, even ogled appreciatively for her choice of attire.

She wore what she would consider to be a very sexy and flirtatious dress. It was simple, _damn_ expensive, blue leather, with a hint of silver from the exposed zipper that ran down her back. It had a halter top that swooped into a low 'V' on the front, revealing her not to shabby cleavage. It was short, ending right at the tops of her thighs, covering her rear, but leaving the illusion that if she was to bend over too far, one might just get lucky, and see exactly what she was wearing underneath... _or wasn't._

She had strapped on a pair of nude high heels with red on the underside of them, wearing her golden hair loose, flowing straight down her back, and was out the door.

Officer Swan had about half an hour before she was supposed to meet Regina underneath the pink sign for the opening of Art Basel.

It was a spectacle of sorts, a marathon of decadence.

Art Basel was Miami's stage for modern and contemporary art forms, consisting of art, design, fairs, parties, exhibitions, dinners, concerts and more. It had originally been a gathering for art dealers and connoisseurs, however now it was just about as commercial as Santa was at Christmas. In Emma's mind it was just another party for the rich and the famous. An excuse to find another reason to spend money on useless things and pop champagne until all hours of the night. She had nearly gagged when she had seen a bottle of Dom Pérignon, the 2004 vintage, starting at $170 a pop and going up from there!

Every year someone on her squad was called, asked to come help when some faceless celebrity had drunk themselves silly at the punch bowl of some art show, and started using their tongues to make their own rendition on the art work provided.

Word had it, that this year Miley Cyrus would be taking to one of the many stages, to wow the crowd with her stunning musical talents.

Emma had rolled her eyes at the thought. That was the last thing she wanted to see. Another childhood celebrity, corrupted by the system, shaking her ass and lip syncing for a crowd. She had actually secretly liked _Hannah Montana_ when it was on the Disney channel. Her pal and long time friend, Tink, had always said that Emma reminded her of the young county girl turned pop star. So when the actress had turned, shedding her sweet, innocent image by chopping her hair and adding the word 'twerk' to her everyday vocabulary, she had immediately grown to dislike the girl.

Officer Emma Swan wouldn't say she was an extreme feminist, though she did work hard at being treated equal in a profession that was mostly predominately male, however she sure didn't like seeing young women lowering themselves to fit the worlds standards.

However, as the thought hit her she took a look down, spotting her ample cleavage popping out from the low cut front of her dress and sighed. _Well, she wasn't saying _she_ was a perfect example of innocence, but her opinion still stood!_

Emma rounded the corner, coming down to the end of the street where the entrance to the extravaganza began.

She made her way through, pulling out the ticket that she had been given hours before. There was a big neon pink sign that read "Art Basel: Miami Beach 2014 - _A Night to Remember,_" in bright bold letters. She followed the line of oddly dressed people, sporting bright colors and some with neon hair. _It sure would be, _she thought.

There would be no badges for either of them tonight. No wires. No phones. Nothing to give either of them away. She would have to blend in perfectly with the crowd of the snobby art junkies and attention seeking Basel attendees. And that meant that she had to wait in line just like everyone else.

She sighed.

_What she wouldn't give for a siren to blare right now?_

The crowd began to thin out after she made it through security, entering the fair. There was a plethora of large, oddly shaped structures all around. Most were spherical, making them look like some abnormal persons interpretation of a glass balloon. Each brightly painted and held down on an axis point, like a ribbon, keeping them from floating away from the ground.

Officer Swan looked up, spotting the large pink sign and headed towards it.

Once she made her way over, she stood under the spot where the sign hung, basking in the neon light. She took a moment to survey her surroundings as she waited for her partner.

There were loads of people there. Her best guess would be around a thousand or two waiting to enter in the entrance-way alone.

Each had, what she would call, an 'air of superciliousness' to them.

They were all talking, some gesturing wildly with their hands to exaggerate their already embellished points.

She could see some women, whose dresses were even more oddly shaped than that of the glass balloons, with cut outs here and there making them look like walking art pieces. The men were no better, some had incredibly gelled hair that looked like it had been dyed over a hundred times to achieve the exact shade of perfectly platinum blonde. There were also some carrying small dogs in their bedazzled handbags, or glasses of champagne in-between their heavily manicured fingers.

Emma looked at the table to her left, and leafed through a thick glimmering catalog of designs, products and spaces.

"Interested in architecture are we?" Came a voice from behind her.

The voice was soft, smooth, and went down with a little heat like a rich French Bourbon.

Officer Swan set down the magazine, turning around on her heels to face the speaker. When she did however she was nearly knocked back at the sight of the woman beside her.

She was dressed in nothing but red, from head to toe. The dress was strapless, it highlighted her tan arms and fine collar bones, and showed off her well toned calf muscles. The fabric was so vivid that Emma wouldn't have been surprised to find out that it had been drenched in blood. There were tall heels on her feet, that strapped around her crimson painted toe nails and laced up by her ankles. Her lips looked like the had been painted by Da Vinci, in the most sinful shade of ruby red that Emma had ever seen.

For a moment, Officer Swan found herself at a loss for words, wondering what the color of the undergarments her partner was sure to have on underneath her seductive attire would be.

_"Probably red,"_ she thought and then realized to late that she had said aloud.

"What was that Emma?" Came the deep, velvety voice of the woman before her with a raise of a perfectly sculpted brow.

"Nothing Detective Mills."

"Aha-uh," The woman said, making a sound with her tongue on the roof of her mouth while waging a long, slender pointer finger back and forth, "None of that tonight," she said.

"Tonight it's just Regina," she continued, moving closer to the blonde as she spoke, "And you're _just_ Emma, are we clear dear?"

Officer Swan swallowed. She could see the gleam in the Regina's eyes as she neared her. It looked as if the outfit appreciation the woman was paying her had gone beyond just her clothes, as the brunette's chocolate eyes dropped, scanning over every inch of the blonde's body. When her eyes raised Emma would have sworn they were a shade darker, the pupils wider than they had been a moment before.

She could now make out the intoxicating scent that the woman wore. _Be Delicious _by DKNY, the Red Apple edition. She would know it anywhere. It was so juicy she could almost taste it. She quickly had to push away thoughts of sinking her teeth into the woman's exposed clavicle however when she closed the distance between them. Emma focused on the woman's darkly rimmed eyes and not letting her own lashes flutter shut as she breathed in the exhilarating scent.

"Crystal, _Regina_."

The brunette smiled, flashing her perfectly white teeth at the Officer from under her alluring pout. Her eye's flicked up and Emma could swear that she leaned in even closer.

"Good," she whispered.

With that the brunette turned around, stalking away from the blonde who was left standing still, rooted to the spot.

"Are you coming along dear?" She said from over her shoulder, reaching the exit of the balloon sculpture park and heading toward the illuminated glass-fruit covered arches.

Emma cleared her throat.

_This was going to be a __very__ long night._

xxx

There was a plethora of pools with no one swimming in them.

That fact bugged Officer Swan more than anything else. They had both been there for an hour, weaving in an out of exhibits, 'ooh-ing' and 'awe-ing' at the interesting yet still bloody weird art sculptures, and nibbling on the 'bite size' hors d'oeuvres.

Well she had been nibbling. Detective Mills seemed completely uninterested in sampling any of the free food. Emma however, was finding herself increasingly parched after her tenth, no-crust, 'one bite does it' sandwich.

"God, what I wouldn't give for a pop!" She though aloud.

"What was that dear?"

"Nothing," Emma stated. The woman before her hadn't been keen on talking to Emma throughout the hour or so that had passed. She had zig-zaged through the different exhibits, occasionally stopping to look and to, as Emma presumed, take in the beauty of some art pieces.

Emma watched as the gorgeous brunette wrapped in red stopped yet again in front of another piece. This one was a painting, and from what Emma could see as she glanced at it, while trying to subtly eye the very fine backside of her partner, was that it looked like the outline of a woman.

"Emma," came the silky smooth voice from the mouth that belonged to the body she had been analyzing closely. "Come here, tell me what you think of this one dear."

_'Come hither' _was all Emma heard.

She made her way over to the brunette. As she neared the woman the dots on the painting came into focus and she realized that she had been correct in her initial assumption. It was in fact a woman. However because of the strategically placed colors and circles that made up her pop art body, Emma could tell that she was most definitely naked.

"Uh, It's cool." She said finally.

"Really you think so?" Detective Regina responded.

"Yeah, I like it."

There were very few things that made Officer Emma Swan feel like she was out of her depth. She could handle crooks, criminals and crazed psychotic killers. But being asked for her opinion on an art piece, that was new ground, even for her.

She suddenly felt incredibly stupid as she looked at the woman to her left. The brunette's dark eyes were sweeping over the painting, taking in every detail, every line and stroke of cleverly placed colors, and values to give it it's 3D effect.

The woman stepped back slightly and then hummed, a deep, low sound in her throat that did something to Officer Emma's bubbling libido.

"I think the artists use of the color red gives this painting just an extra kick. The way he chose to paint her, the woman could have been innocent and pure, a virgin, but the hint of red on her lips, that tells me that she knows what she's doing. She knows her power and she's not affraid to use it. She is a lioness, ready to pounce on her unsuspecting prey. The woman in red."

"Is that how you think of yourself?" Officer Emma found herself asking before she could stop.

Detective Mills turned towards her.

Where Emma had expected the usual smirk to be written clearly on Regina's face, there was none. It was replaced by nothing less than a shy smile and what Emma thought to be a slight blush to her partners cheeks.

"Maybe," She said.

Officer Swan wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. She stared at her partner for a minute, and felt like she was about to enter one of those surreal moments where her thoughts took over, and she temporarily lost touch with the rest of the world outside of her mind.

She was standing there, discussing art and trading gazes, with none other than the famed Detective Regina Mills. They were working on a case together, a dream she had had ever since she had laid eyes on the woman in academy.

Detective Mills may have been right with her comment the day before, that 'people will surprise you', however what Detective Mills did not know, was that she was about to be more surprised to figure out what Officer Emma Swan already knew about her, as opposed anything she could ever reveal to her.

Officer Emma had more of an inside scoop on the home life and inner-workings of Detective Regina Mills than she'd like to admit.

But Emma decided that this wasn't the time, nor the place to break that news. She quickly turned around, putting her back to the art piece and cleared her throat.

"So how long do you think this is gonna take?" She asked.

Regina dropped all further pretenses and jumped straight in cop mode.

"Ms. French's exhibit will be show cased just left of the center stage at six o'clock. However, Gold isn't said to be making an appearance until eight. It's currently 5:35 now. So I'd say if we head over, and take a look around. Pretend to see the sign for her exhibit opening and then make our way back around for seven we should be good."

"Seriously, it's going to be that long of a wait?" Emma asked. She hadn't meant for her voice to come out in as much of a whine as it did, but the forces that controlled her vocal chords seemed to be against her that night and the complaint in her voice was apparent.

Regina looked at her, narrowing her kohl rimmed eyes at the blonde.

"What? Did you think this was going to be easy? This is Gold we're after. Not some petty thief that steals candy from stores, and then posts a Tweet about it."

If Emma had to give her partner one thing, it was that she was extremely witty and good with quips. Just about every other word out of her mouth was a zinger. If she had been an actor she could have been comedy gold.

"No," Emma responded, ignoring the woman's taunting, "My feet are just killing me."

Out of the corner of her eye, Emma saw Detective Mills eyes travel down to her footwear. They seemed to pause however on her long legs, which she knew she had accentuated with wearing the nude heels. And she knew they looked killer in her short dress. Regina seemed to be coming to the same conclusion, however, for her eyes flickered for a moment before making their way back up Emma's body, to her face.

She hummed in what Emma would say was an appreciative tone, and then said in a low whisper, "Tough luck."

And then she was off.

Officer Swan rolled her eyes.

"Figures."

xxx

They made their way through more colorful exhibits.

Emma ignored most of the artwork, choosing to stare mostly at the backside of woman before her.

She would have sworn, by the way that the Detective was walking, the brunette knew that she had her eyes on her. Her hips were hypnotic, encircled in the vivid red fabric that seemed to cling to her every curve.

Emma must have been staring a bit to intently for she only caught the woman stopping before her a second before she collided with her backside.

"French's exhibit is just to the left of here." The woman said.

"Oh?" Emma responded.

The brunette hummed, "We're a bit early, and I don't want to draw suspicion. So we should split. You go left, mingle, I hear there is a whole wing dedicated to living art."

"Living art?" Emma question, confused.

The detective nodded as if she was discussing something as normal as the weather.

"Art made up of live people. Standing, sitting, sometimes taped together, all in various states of undress."

"Wait you mean _naked_ people?"

There was a smirk of the brunettes red lips as she turned to her. "That's exactly what I mean."

Officer Emma was thoroughly confused, however the feeling of slight arousal that over took her senses from the look she was getting from the woman next to her didn't alarm her as much as it ought to have.

Emma swallowed, trying to get some lubrication back in her suddenly dry throat.

"And, where are you going?" She asked.

"Over there." The detective flicked her head to the right. There was a large pink door with black lights encompassing it's borders. A large, heavily suited man was standing on guard out front.

"What, they have strip clubs here too?" Emma questioned.

"It's a private showing."

Just then, Officer Swan noticed the large sign scrawled above the door that read 'VIP Access Only'.

"Uh, I think you've got to have some pretty high playing cards to get in there," Emma commented.

The brunette only smiled, and slithered a hand between her breasts where she pulled a thin ticket from the space between her bra and her skin. Emma felt a fuse snap in her brain as she saw a flash of lace covering perfectly tan skin.

"Or a VIP ticket."

"How'd you score that?!" Emma asked, when her mind came back from it's current scrambled state.

Detective Mills however only smiled. There was a flash of perfectly white teeth under ruby red lips and Emma found herself staring again.

"Some of us actually like art dear."

Emma was about to respond but before she could open her mouth the brunette was already walking away. She made her way up to the door, flashing a smile and no doubt a bit of tan skin, judging by the guards smug look of approval, before handing over her ticket and entering the private show room.

Officer Emma found herself suddenly alone.

"Damn woman."

* * *

**_thank you for reading! and a big thanks to all of you for your love/comments/faves/tweets and follows for this fic! a few shoutouts:_**

_**OutlawQueen2012:** Wow! I'm so honored I could be your first SQ fic! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well! MWAH!_

_**caliclair:** Me too! Haha, thank you lovely! MWAH!_

_**UraniumLullaby:** Your review left me in tears laughing because I saw the "Ummhmmmm" and your T'Rex icon and imagined him saying that and about 'spit out my tea' (to quote ID(; ) dear goodness - so sorry to make you wait! Hope you've enjoyed this update just as much if not more! MWAH!_

_**alays**: BONJOUR! __merci beaucoup! MWAH!_


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